Is anyone else experiencing a keypad backlight that will only come on in dimly lit rooms/areas. I find the keypad somewhat difficult to see in anything below good lighting. I"m comparing it to my 8700 keypad which seemed to be much quicker to turn on the keypad backlight.

guinda35

02-23-2007 10:49 AM

Go from the options (wrench) icon of your desktop to Screen/Keyboard, and jiggle with the light control features. Maybe...

greggebhardt

02-23-2007 11:29 AM

Turn the auto backlight feature off so it come on full blast at all times. The battery on the 8800 last so long it will not make a difference

Air Force One

03-08-2007 07:55 PM

So, unlike the Pearl, the auto backlight/dim can be disabled on the 8800?

The inability to disable this on the Pearl is driving me nuts.

Thanks

rickthornton

03-15-2007 07:42 AM

I am resurrecting my own thread here since I am coming up on my 30 days and thinking about whether I should try to exchange my 8800 for another. My issue as previously stated is that when using the Automatic Backlight mode, my keypad seems to routinely be unlit in situations where the lack of a keypad backlight makes it difficult to see the keys well enough to type. Not really any problem with the level of backlight on the screen, just on or off on the keypad.

I have been using this with the auto mode off, which solves the keypad issue, but forces me to manually dim the backlight level at night and prevents me from having the "super-bright" mode in direct sunlight (without a power button press).

My question is, does this seem to be isolated to my unit (or a few) or is it so common that replacing my unit is futile?

Any thoughts.

Thanks.

Vlex

03-15-2007 08:07 AM

The back light on my 8800 is a little flaky as well (as was the one on my 8700). I just disabled the automatic back light so that it comes on all the time.

One thing I have noticed on my 8800 is that the keys on either side of the trackball are not back lit very well at all. Is this normal?

paulmac

03-15-2007 08:15 AM

Doesn't the app BB light fix or solve some of these problems by overiding the back light controls and giving you more options? I have used that on every BB I have had, and set it turn the back light on for any user activity, removal from holster, etc. And it seems to solve at least some of the problems with the back light and it's lack of controls.

H3LLFIRE

03-15-2007 10:29 AM

Keep the light on baby!

Quote:

Originally Posted by greggebhardt

Turn the auto backlight feature off so it come on full blast at all times. The battery on the 8800 last so long it will not make a difference

I agree, keeping the backlight on at full blast really doesn't affect the battery life of the 8800 as much as one would expect. Personally I can't stand the auto-dim feature. Sometimes it dims down too much and I end up pressing the brightness button anyway. So now I just leave it at 100 with the auto backlight option turned off. Even with heavy use (emails, newsclip, bbtoday, occasional gps) I have yet to be down below 70% battery at the end of the day.

rickthornton

03-15-2007 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3LLFIRE

I agree, keeping the backlight on at full blast really doesn't affect the battery life of the 8800 as much as one would expect. Personally I can't stand the auto-dim feature. Sometimes it dims down too much and I end up pressing the brightness button anyway. So now I just leave it at 100 with the auto backlight option turned off. Even with heavy use (emails, newsclip, bbtoday, occasional gps) I have yet to be down below 70% battery at the end of the day.

This is what I've been doing, disabling the auto backlight feature during the day. My issues come up that in low light situations, i.e., car at night, etc. I have to manually adjust the light level, which isn't a huge deal. Another problem I've had is with Telenav, when I manually change the brightness level of the backlight, Telenav will stop refreshing the map display. It requires that I completely exit out of Telenav anytime I try to change the display brightness.

So it isn't really one huge issue, just several minor inconveniences not being able to use the auto feature.

rickthornton

03-24-2007 10:30 AM

A Resolution

I was really getting frustrated with the lack of a functioning auto backlight. I liked it on the 8700 and it just never worked properly on my 8800.

I had planned on just living with it, as it is a pain to switch devices, get new registration codes for all purchased third party software, etc.

At the 29 day mark, I snapped under the pressure and went to Cingular and did an exchange, just to see if it made a difference. Well, it did, my new 8800 seems to function exactly as my old 8700C did. Bottom line, my first unit was apparently defective.

Life is now good (or at least better).

gifty74

04-16-2007 08:33 AM

On the subject of backlighting, I have an 8700c and its docked beside my desktop computer a good bit of the time. What would be awesome is if the backlight would come on when I receive a new email. Unlike my 7290, the screen is such that it cannot be viewed unless the backlight is turned on. Any suggestions on how to address this? I had been using bblight on my 7290, but does that have a feature to turn on the light on receipt of a new email?